✦ Claude Certified Associate · Foundations
Three weeks of live, hands-on prep for the Claude Certified Associate - Foundations. Prompting, output evaluation, model selection, and responsible use. Built for non-coders.
✦ Your instructor
Mike Wheeler is an AI and Salesforce trainer and O’Reilly author. He has taught well over 500,000 global learners on major platforms such as edX, LinkedIn Learning, Pearson, and Udemy, and he built the first generative AI course on edX. He teaches for non-coders, working backward from your career goals.
Non-coders getting certified on Anthropic’s Claude. People who want to prompt well, evaluate output, and choose the right model with confidence.
The Claude Certified Associate is the entry credential for working with Claude, and it is about judgment rather than code. If you can use a browser and write clearly, you can do this. We build the skills and the exam readiness from the ground up.
✦ The curriculum & schedule
Six live sessions over three weeks: three teaching sessions plus three optional office hours. All times Central. Can’t make one live? Every session is recorded.
Structure prompts that work, then validate and verify what Claude gives you. This is the exam’s heaviest cluster, so we start here.
Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across every Velza Academy cohort.
Model and product selection across the Haiku, Sonnet, Opus, and Fable ladder, plus workflow integration and knowledge and configuration management.
Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across every Velza Academy cohort.
Responsible use, troubleshooting and optimization, then a diagnostic practice walkthrough with exam strategy.
Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across every Velza Academy cohort.
Structure prompts that work, then validate and verify what Claude gives you. This is the exam’s heaviest cluster, so we start here.
Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across every Velza Academy cohort.
Model and product selection across the Haiku, Sonnet, Opus, and Fable ladder, plus workflow integration and knowledge and configuration management.
Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across every Velza Academy cohort.
Responsible use, troubleshooting and optimization, then a diagnostic practice walkthrough with exam strategy.
Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across every Velza Academy cohort.
Structure prompts that work, then validate and verify what Claude gives you. This is the exam’s heaviest cluster, so we start here.
Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across every Velza Academy cohort.
Model and product selection across the Haiku, Sonnet, Opus, and Fable ladder, plus workflow integration and knowledge and configuration management.
Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across every Velza Academy cohort.
Responsible use, troubleshooting and optimization, then a diagnostic practice walkthrough with exam strategy.
Job-market intel and open Q&A, shared across every Velza Academy cohort.
✦ What you’ll walk away with
Claude is becoming a workplace standard, and the credential is how you prove you can operate it.
Employers are adopting AI faster than they can staff it, and a new wave of AI certifications is rising to prove real skill. Getting certified now puts you ahead of the curve.
✦ Exam coverage
Every domain in the official blueprint, weighted so your hours match the exam’s.
| Output Evaluation & Validation | 21% |
| Workflow Integration & Solution Design | 16% |
| Governance, Risk & Responsible Use | 15% |
| Prompting & Task Execution | 14% |
| Product & Model Selection | 12% |
| Configuration & Knowledge Management | 12% |
| Troubleshooting & Optimization | 10% |
✦ What’s included
Three teaching sessions plus three optional office hours, live over three weeks. Tuesdays at 7:30-8:30 PM Central.
Every session is recorded, and you keep access to the replays for a full year, so you can rewatch any time before your exam.
A real hands-on exercise each week, so you build judgment with Claude rather than just notes.
✦ Questions, answered
Yes. This exam is about using Claude well, not writing code. We start from the foundations and build up, one focused hour at a time. If you can use a browser and write clearly, you can keep up.
The Claude Certified Associate - Foundations (CCAO-F) is Anthropic’s entry-level credential for working with Claude. It covers prompting and task execution, output evaluation and validation, product and model selection, workflow integration, configuration and knowledge management, governance and responsible use, and troubleshooting.
Not to follow along in the sessions. Having your own Claude access makes the hands-on portions richer, and we will be clear about what needs a paid plan and what does not.
No. This cohort is exam prep. You register and pay for the exam separately through Anthropic.
Every session is recorded and shared, and you keep access to the replays for a full year, so you can watch or rewatch any of them on your own schedule. The optional Friday office hours are recorded too.
Self-study stalls. A live cohort gives you a fixed three-week pace, the chance to ask questions in real time, weekly hands-on work, and optional office hours. You actually finish.
You can request a full refund within 24 hours of the start of the first live session.